“Greek output is now 3.7 per cent higher than its trough in mid-2015, which makes it 25 per cent below 2007 levels. Despite strong growth expectations, Greece’s economic output in 2023 is forecast to be 17 per cent below 2007 levels, according to International Monetary Fund data. […]

Though more than 300,000 new jobs have been added since March 2015, many are temporary or part-time positions, and average wages in real terms are 22 per cent below 2009 levels. In Spain, Italy and Portugal, average wages in real terms have recovered to between 4 and 6 per cent below pre-crisis peaks.

In 2007, Greeks were better off than people in half of the countries that now form the EU. After adjusting for price differences — so-called purchasing power parity — Greece had a similar per capita output to Spain, was 21 per cent more well off than Portugal and 71 per cent richer than Poland. Now, Greeks are almost 9 per cent worse off than Portuguese and Poles, while Spaniards are almost 40 per cent better off. Greece has become the fourth-poorest EU country, after Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania.”

“At a time of mounting uncertainty in Europe, Portugal has defied critics who have insisted on austerity as the answer to the Continent’s economic and financial crisis. While countries from Greece to Ireland — and for a stretch, Portugal itself — toed the line, Lisbon resisted, helping to stoke a revival that drove economic growth last year to its highest level in a decade. […]

Voters ushered Mr. [António] Costa, a center-left leader, into power in late 2015 after he promised to reverse cuts to their income, which the previous government had approved to reduce Portugal’s high deficit under the terms of an international bailout of 78 billion euros, or $90 billion. Mr. Costa formed an unusual alliance with Communist and radical-left parties, which had been shut out of power since the end of Portugal’s dictatorship in 1974. They united with the goal of beating back some of the toughest aspects of austerity, while balancing the books to meet eurozone rules.

The government raised public sector salaries, the minimum wage and pensions and even restored the amount of vacation days to prebailout levels over objections from creditors like Germany and the International Monetary Fund. […]

The economic about-face had a remarkable impact on Portugal’s collective psyche. While discouragement lingers in Greece after a decade of spending cuts, Portugal’s recovery has pivoted around restoring confidence to get people and businesses motivated again.”